This invention relates to a word line number count/display device, which is used with a tape recorder for dictation using a multi-channel magnetic head, and counts and displays the number of word lines of the essential portion or main communication content of dictated information recorded on a magnetic recording tape.
In the prior-art tape recorder for dictation using a multi-channel magnetic head, at the time of recording, a message containing a remark or the like regarding the main communication content is recorded before the recording of the main communication content which is the essential portion of the dictation. Also, at the time of the recording, a first cue signal is recorded on the tape immediately before the recording of the message, and also a second cue signal different from the first cue signal is recorded on the tape immediately before and after the recording of the main communication content for the purpose of facilitating discrimination between the message and main communication content at playback. At this time, the message and main communication content are recorded on the magnetic recording tape by one of two magnetic heads or a first magnetic head of the multi-channel magnetic head, while the first and second cue signals are recorded on the tape by the other or a second magnetic head of the multi-channel magnetic head.
During playback of the tape, on which the message and main communication content as well as the first and second cue signals are recorded in the above way, the first and second cue signals are reproduced by the second magnetic head while the message and main communication content are reproduced by the first magnetic head. With the prior-art tape recorder, however, the number of words of the main communication content cannot be told before the typing operation. Therefore, it is impossible to know before the typing operation the number of word lines which are required for typing the main communication content on a typing sheet having a predetermined width. This means that it sometimes happens that it is found after the typing operation that it is impossible to write a signature on the sheet where the last portion of the main communication content is typed, so that the signature alone has to be written on a separate sheet. Also it sometimes happens that the signature has to be written on a sheet where only the last few lines of the main communication portion is typed.